Flying and the jet stream?

[JTG51]

I flew from CA to CT and back for the holidays. I noticed that the trip from West to East was quite a bit faster than East to West. Why is this? Does the jet stream make that much difference, or is there another reason?

[nolanfan34]

You're correct, it's the jet stream. It does make a difference.

[lu_hawk]

Jet stream. Typically you're going around 650mph when travelling eastward, around 550mph westward.

[brassnuts]

Yup. Think about it. An airplane's ground speed is a sum of it's airspeed (the velocity it travels relative to the surrounding air) added to the velocity of the air. I'm not sure, but don't jet streams travel at 60-100 mph?

[sfer]

I thought part of it was also flying with/against the rotation of the Earth.

Ever fly across the internation date line? That's a mind-fcuk.

[GuyOnTilt]

I thought part of it was also flying with/against the rotation of the Earth.

I don't anything on this subject, but my brain tells me that shouldn't matter at all.

GoT

[lu_hawk]

"I thought part of it was also flying with/against the rotation of the Earth."

The earth rotates so that if you were above the east coast of the US and stayed still then the west coast would be coming towards you. But it takes longer to go in that direction so either the rotation doesn't have any effect or the effect of the jet stream overpowers it.

[SomethingClever]

The atmosphere moves with the earth. That's why when you jump up in the air, you don't suddenly get slammed into a wall at 10,000 mph.

[DBowling]

Different times zones. You add time going east and subtract it going west.

[sfer]

I am so smart. S-M-R-T.

[brassnuts]

[ QUOTE ]
I thought part of it was also flying with/against the rotation of the Earth.

[/ QUOTE ]

This doesn't matter at all. It's all about relative motion. Think of it like this. At the equator, before takeoff, the air, the plane, and the ground would all intially be traveling roughly 1000mph in the direction of the rotation.

You might be thinking of how space shuttles take off in the same direction as the Earth's rotation to give them a little boost. The shuttle's final velocity has to be about 17,000 mph to escape the Earth's gravitional pull, but in this case, that velocity is only relative to the Earth's center, not the ground or air from which it took off from.

[lu_hawk]

[ QUOTE ]
The atmosphere moves with the earth. That's why when you jump up in the air, you don't suddenly get slammed into a wall at 10,000 mph.

[/ QUOTE ]

No it's not. The reason you don't get slammed into a wall is because you are moving the same speed as the earth is and continue to move that speed when you are in the air. Atmosphere has nothing to do with it.

[brassnuts]

[ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
The atmosphere moves with the earth. That's why when you jump up in the air, you don't suddenly get slammed into a wall at 10,000 mph.


[/ QUOTE ]
No it's not. The reason you don't get slammed into a wall is because you are moving the same speed as the earth is and continue to move that speed when you are in the air. Atmosphere has nothing to do with it.


[/ QUOTE ]

Well, if the atmosphere weren't moving with the Earth's rotation, you woulnd't even have to jump to get slammed into a wall by the wind, if the wall were somehow to stand up to a thousand mph wind as well. Assuming you are in a protective shelter from the wind, yeah, like hawk said, it wouldn't make a difference.

[Ulysses]

Last night I had dinner with an astronaut. He recently came back from six months on the space station. He's going to Japan soon and the trip will take something like 14 or 17 hours. When he was in space, he said they'd orbit the whole earth in about 90 minutes so the Houston-Japan trip would be like 40 minutes. Anyway, I mainly just wanted to post that I had dinner with an astronaut, 'cuz that's cool.

[SomethingClever]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
The atmosphere moves with the earth. That's why when you jump up in the air, you don't suddenly get slammed into a wall at 10,000 mph.

[/ QUOTE ]

No it's not. The reason you don't get slammed into a wall is because you are moving the same speed as the earth is and continue to move that speed when you are in the air. Atmosphere has nothing to do with it.

[/ QUOTE ]

You're right, of course, but I was just trying to make a point.

I should have said, "Did you ever notice the lack of constant 10,000 mile per hour winds?"

[Zeno]

My trip to Taipei a few years ago took a lot longer coming back to LAX than the trip out. Jet Steam. Not much more info but I wanted to get in that I am a world traveler and thus one up El Diablo and his fetish for astronauts. Cuz that's Cool.

-Zeno

Plus I zipped over the international date line, even more cool.

[ThaSaltCracka]

dinner with an asstronaut? sounds kinda gay.

[Zeno]

Some more interesting information that everyone should know about Coriolis Effect (http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/%28Gh%29/guides/mtr/fw/crls.rxml)

Important in the distribution and direction of wind currents at certain laditudes.

Even Ray Zee did not know about this.

-Zeno

[sfer]

About a half dozen times I've flown from Sydney to San Francisco. Each time I arrived before I took off. I laugh at 40 minutes.

[SossMan]

[ QUOTE ]
The atmosphere moves with the earth. That's why when you jump up in the air, you don't suddenly get slammed into a wall at 10,000 mph.

[/ QUOTE ]

yeah, that would make basketball nearly impossible.

[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
The atmosphere moves with the earth. That's why when you jump up in the air, you don't suddenly get slammed into a wall at 10,000 mph.

[/ QUOTE ]

Given the diameter of the earth is about 25,000 miles and it rotates once per day the velocity would be closer to 1000 mph /images/graemlins/smile.gif

~ Rick

PS Try to calculate the velocity of the Earth as it orbits the sun.

[SomethingClever]

[ QUOTE ]
PS Try to calculate the velocity of the Earth as it orbits the sun.

[/ QUOTE ]

That sounds hard. I'll guess and say 240,000 mph.

[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
PS Try to calculate the velocity of the Earth as it orbits the sun.

[/ QUOTE ]

That sounds hard. I'll guess and say 240,000 mph.

[/ QUOTE ]

Distance from sun is about 94 million miles so diameter of orbit is about 190 million miles times pi is about 600 million miles travled per year divided by 365 days is a little less than two million miles per day divided by 24 hours per day is about 80,000 mph /images/graemlins/grin.gif

~ Rick

Edited post - actually laid down to rest my head for a few minutes before doing a final chore for the day and realized I made a small mistake - ruined my rest /images/graemlins/frown.gif

[Zeno]

And people say they never go anywhere. The solar system itself is also on the move and our lovely Milky Way is also zoom along at a faily nice clip heading into the distance gloom of heat death that entropy has in store for everything.

-Zeno

[brassnuts]

[ QUOTE ]
diameter of orbit is about 190 million miles times pi is about 300 million miles

[/ QUOTE ]

Eh?

[Rick Nebiolo]

just corrected in edit - see above

it did bother me enough to wake me from a two minute nap!

[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
And people say they never go anywhere. The solar system itself is also on the move and our lovely Milky Way is also zoom along at a faily nice clip heading into the distance gloom of heat death that entropy has in store for everything.

[/ QUOTE ]

Care to calculate the velocity relative to nirvana? /images/graemlins/smile.gif

~ Rick

[TimM]

[ QUOTE ]
Anyway, I mainly just wanted to post that I had dinner with an astronaut, 'cuz that's cool.

[/ QUOTE ]

You left yourself open to a really bad Uranus quip, but I'll let you off easy this time.

[Zeno]

[ QUOTE ]
Care to calculate the velocity relative to nirvana? /images/graemlins/smile.gif


[/ QUOTE ]


I'll leave that to Mr. Zee. /images/graemlins/smirk.gif

-Zeno

[GuyOnTilt]

The solar system itself is also on the move and our lovely Milky Way is also zoom along at a faily nice clip

Relative to what exactly?

GoT

[daryn]

probably relative to the center of the universe.

[Zeno]

The Milky Way Galaxy has rotating spiral arms of which are Solar System is part. We are hardly stationary while the rest of the matter in the Galaxy spins about its center. Our entire Galaxy is rotating while at the same time zooming to the nearest Cosmic Bar for a Drink before heading off into oblivion. Here is an excellent web page The Milky Way (http://cassfos02.ucsd.edu/public/tutorial/MW.html)

The universe is in state of expansion or inflation, thus our Galaxy, along with all matter, is on some trajectory away from a hypothesized Big Bang Center.

I think.

-Zeno